Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[3riverschick]

Thoughts For The Day
"It is upon the excellence of the general character of the individuals of the breed, rather than upon the length of the head or the breadth of the skull or similar details, that the breed will stand, and the successful support to the breed must be upon the basis of this greater vision, if the breeders of collies are to succeed in their purpose of bettering the breed." Edwin L. Pickhardt "The Collie In America" 1924
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"It is the varied opinion of breeders as to what constitutes the ideal representative of the breed, and their selection of breeding stock that maintains breed diversity."
Jerold S. Bell, DVM
Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, N. Grafton, MA
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"My own view is that you must try to secure the best and most suitable breeding through both sire and dam, bring it both inbreeding and outcrossing as near and perfect in the abstract as you can. Success will depend on whether any particular foal takes after his dam and the majority of his maternal ascendants or after his sire and the majority of his paternal ascendants."
The Aga Khan "Memoirs"

 

[Lacy Blues]

Ah, here's where it gets interesting ! Invitro studies done at Perdue years ago on sheep proved that the DNA combination/ sperm that produced "Super Lamb" was walled out during a subsequent breeding to the same male. The ova are immune.Breeding to a different male/ DNA combination will break the immunity.Mother Nature likes genetic diversity.

There was a great producing Thoroughbred mare called Hildene. Every one of her foals were stakes winners. She was NEVER bred to the same sire twice in a row.Her owner would breed her out, and then breed back to the proven sire.That broke the immunity. Look up her producing record.

Man'O War's dam , Mahubah was never bred to any sire but Fair Play. She was known as his wife.She never produced anything approaching Man 'O War. She was immune to that genetic combination.

If you look at large families of children you will see that every other child looks somewhat alike. Never 2 in a row.

When you get a great hatch of super chicks, breed that hen to anything , and pitch the eggs. Then breed her back to super male.It works, and the studies at Perdue confirm it.

This is really interesting! I'll have to give that a go next season.

 

[thedragonlady]

That is so weird! Do you have a link to an article? I'd love to read more!

The studies at Perdue were done in the late 70s I believe, pre my computer experience.I'll have a bash at looking it up. I read the article at the time, and changed my breeding plans accordingly, with good results.

 

[thedragonlady]

The studies at Perdue were done in the late 70s I believe, pre my computer experience.I'll have a bash at looking it up. I read the article at the time, and changed my breeding plans accordingly, with good results.

I was just looking for the study, and came across this. This is horrifying !

www.upc-online.org/experimentation/102803ge.htm

 

[aveca]

When you see us complaining about monsantos on another thread..this is why..plus much more..your french fries at mcdonalds are genetic combo of poisonous moth and idaho potatoe, thier thought was if we add the poison moth genes to the potatoe , less spraying of thier own products like roundup..i could go on all day but wont..if anyone wants to know they can look them up..they proudly display thier island of dr monroe creatures right on thier own web site such as sheep gene spliced with spiders to produce wool used in military vests..cant imagine some of the monsters that came out of that combo..

 

[ocap]

ah yes, but I grew up reading older books and classic literature. I am used to the more flowery language. Yes we are more blunt and to the point now but I think in some cases we have lost a lot of romance and other things in the process.

word's meanings change over the decades, in the C.S. Lewis book that is in my favorites below Mr. Lewis mentions the word "gentleman" and the meaning used to be land owner, now the original meaning is lost.

 

[Robert Blosl]

Today I hatched 11 of 18 LF Buff Rock eggs all the way from Virginia to AZ.
61% hatch rate is not too shabby especially since it's been hotter and drier than Hell's Kitchen here in AZ.

Nice, clean hatches and lively, big chicks. 12 went to day 18...then 11 of those hatched 'on time' at day 21.

I will post pics when they have dried and in brooder.
So thrilled that I now actually have some standard bred LF Buff Rocks...many thanks to Bob Blosl and Tom Roebuck.

Now, I will aspire to do my best to grow them out 'proper' in this dreadful AZ heat over the next 3 months...

What a successful project. I am sure Tom will be thrilled and now we have a source next year for Buff Rocks. Bob

 

[fowlman01]

What a successful project. I am sure Tom will be thrilled and now we have a source next year for Buff Rocks. Bob

I have been taking meds for blood pressure for about 5 years now. It took them a while to get the right dose, but it worked.

Bob..I have two black Silkies out...... .gonna knock these other sissy birds out of the box with these. They are only a couple weeks old, but I can tell they are grand champ material.

Walt

 

[MagicChicken]

Are there any guidelines for what age pullets and cockerels should be at their "standard" weight? Obviously a cockerel will not suddenly gain a pound or two overnight on the day he becomes a cockbird... unless he attends one heck of a party that night... I'm thinking that a pullet or cockerel should be close to standard weight by 10 months or so, and a hen or cockbird should be at standard weight by maybe 15 months old. Does that sound about right?

I'm wondering if my birds are really as small as I think they are. At a little over five months old my birds weigh about half the "standard" adult weight for my breed. Standard weights for Javas are 9.5 pounds for a cockbird, 8 lbs for a cockerel, 7.5 pounds for a hen, and 6.5 pounds for a pullet.

At approximately 22 weeks old, my cockerels range from 4.5-5.5 pounds, averaging around 5 pounds each. My pullets range from 3.5-4.5 pounds, averaging around 4 pounds each. The weight ranges and averages are all up about a pound from where they were ten weeks ago.

If they continue gaining a pound every ten weeks my largest pullet will be slightly underweight in mid November when I may be showing her, and my largest cockerel will be almost a pound underweight. They will be about 10 months old at that time.

These birds really cut back their feed consumption around 16 weeks old, which coincided with the first triple-digit temperatures and the first pullet eggs. The birds seem healthy and vigorous. But they don't seem to be putting on much weight. This is my first year with this breed and I know I will have answers once the birds are grown out. For now I am unsure if I need to be concerned about weight or not. Can't do anything about the heat slowing them down but I can tweak the feed regimen if necessary. Am open to comments and suggestions.

Sarah

 

[cluck-cluck]

I wrote comments, mostly thanking everyone for such good insight and explanations, but I goofed up and lost my post. I don't have time to redo it, LOL, but thank you all!

RE: Call of the Hen

I was trying to look up pictures and more info of what Hogan calls prepotency and came across a site that says that the theory of phrenology (upon which his work was based) has since been debunked, but doesn't say that the prepotency theory was debunked as well. Does anyone know of any other research or have experience with this?

http://scratchcradle.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/gms-supplement-3-selecting-for-head-shape/

Hogan proposed that if the brain was large, the nervous system was healthy and the chicken’s traits would be more apparent in its offspring than a chicken with a poorer nervous system. Borrowing heavily from the now mostly debunked theory of phrenology which was practiced on humans in the early 1900s, Hogan said that the development of the brain and nervous system that was the root of prepotency could be ascertained by looking at the size and shape of the skull. He placed one thumb at the back of the skull and his other thumb at the base of the ear: If the first thumb was to the rear of the second, the chicken was higher in prepotency. If his second thumb was equal to or behind the first, the chicken was lower in prepotency.

The only other info I find on prepotency is http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/historicpublications/pubs/SC168.pdf But they only use egg laying capabilities of the dam to choose cocks to use for breeding. This isn't what Hogan was doing.

Thanks,

Gosh, this is hard for me, developing an eye for the bird. May I bore you all with my far less than perfect boy? Is this the way to measure? He needs his beak trimmed again... grows so fast!



I don't get a 90 degree angle like they did in the illustration... ? Not at all sure I picked the right spots either.

BTW, the picture was taken with a flash, his earlobe is a little less white, more like this:
FYI

and looking at him from the front, his eyes are almost impossible to see so I blew up the picture and tried to draw them in, LOL
I *think* I got their shape right, but maybe not??

I can't tell the width/shape of the top of his head, too much crest! You can see the right side of his comb is stumped. I do hope combs are on the easier side to fix

There is no white in his feathering. It just looks like there is because of the shine.

Can anyone help me evaluate his head? He is a hatchery bird, and I will not be offended. I know I keep asking here for more information, but it gets so confusing and difficult to learn, and with nobody to talk to that raises these birds, it's hard, LOL.

Today I hatched 11 of 18 LF Buff Rock eggs all the way from Virginia to AZ.
61% hatch rate is not too shabby especially since it's been hotter and drier than Hell's Kitchen here in AZ.

Nice, clean hatches and lively, big chicks. 12 went to day 18...then 11 of those hatched 'on time' at day 21.

I will post pics when they have dried and in brooder.
So thrilled that I now actually have some standard bred LF Buff Rocks...many thanks to Bob Blosl and Tom Roebuck.

Now, I will aspire to do my best to grow them out 'proper' in this dreadful AZ heat over the next 3 months...

I had to re-build my congratulations to you, as this is so exciting! I truely hope you will grow out healthy beautiful and well balanced chicks! How exciting! I can't wait until I can get some better chicks!

I posted more pictures of him in the Crevecoeur thread, and if any of you could look at them and give me a critique, I would very much appreciate it! Thanks so much! https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/371947/crevecoeur-thread/600#post_11486869